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“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
― Augustine of Hippo

Zip lines and gators and birds? Oh My!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

This month’s adventure led us right to our own back yard. Gatorland is
an attraction in Orlando, Florida for the whole family. You have gator
feeding shows, gator jumping shows, animal encounter shows and the major
attraction that caught our eye, the Screamin’ Gator Zip Line. Soar over
gator and crocodile breeding grounds suspended only by a rope? Bring it
on!

Zip Lines
We spent two hours zipping over 5 zip lines and crossing one
troublesome swinging rope bridge. Everyone else seemed to cross it with
ease so I couldn’t figure out why I was swaying so much until I looked
up and saw Bobbie grinning from behind our guide as she was coaxing him
to shake the bridge on me. Evil wench! She will get what is coming to
her…

Check out our video of all five zips from tower to tower. We were not
allowed to take any video equipment so we had to be filmed from the
ground for the safety of the people and animals we were zipping over. I
suppose a flying gopro to the head would be very unpleasant to anyone
unfortunate enough to be strolling by if any mishaps were to occur.
Notice all the gators around the 55 sec mark as we sail by.

Aviary
Next up we decided to hit the aviary and meet the colorful, friendly
and very nosy array of budgies (aka parakeets). Watch where you step!
These little guys are everywhere. One group distracted us by sitting on
our shoulders and playing in our hair while a second group
was attempting to untie our shoe laces and a third group was picking
pockets!

The aviary wasn’t the only place to see birds around this park.
Everywhere we turned we were surrounded by thieving birds. If you stop
for a snack keep a close eye on your food. These birds are just waiting
for the perfect opportunity to snag a bite and run, or fly.

Some are extremely photogenic. Just look at those feathers sway in the breeze.

And
some obviously hate Mondays. Although this was on a Tuesday so we
weren’t sure what this frazzled fowl’s problem was. Woke up on the wrong
side of the nest? Stuck his beak in a light socket? Whatever the cause,
he was clearly done with this day.

Wait! This is Gatorland not Birdland. Where are all the gators?! Oh, there they are.

Hanging out in the warm Florida sunshine.
Gators galore! We saw big gators, little gators, leucistic gators (white
gators with blue eyes), blonde gators, even a famous voice actor gator.
You can hear him in Jurassic Park lending his vocals to T-rex (I
believe it was T-rex but don’t quote me on that) and Smaug on the
Hobbit.

All that walking, zipping and bird dodging
made us hungry so we had to make a stop at Pearl’s Smokehouse to try
some fried gator nuggets. I will not say that gator
tastes just like chicken, even though it does, but I will say it’s
pretty tasty! We headed over to animal encounters and had the
opportunity to hold a beautiful albino python. So much to do and so
little time! We weren’t able to check out all the animal shows or
reserve our spot to go behind the gates and feed the gators so we will
have to save that for our next visit. And there will definitely be a
next visit!